Prime Collective

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Omar grabs a pile of copper wire, which he manually stripped with a knife in Barcelona, Spain on October 24, 2007. Metal buyers won't accept the copper wire until the plastic insulation is removed, thus he has to dedicate hours each day to stripping the copper clean. Of the metals, copper is the most valuable. During the construction boom they made between $15 to $45 per day, but since the collapse prices have fallen tenfold.